For people who care about their food

Quick and easy tagliatelle with salmon

This is truly a meal in minutes and makes a delicious supper to share with friends. I was looking through The Pasta Bible for ideas. (This is an excellent book, by the way, which made it onto my Top Ten list for 2008.)

In their quick and easy section they suggested fettuccine al salmone (page 126) and the photo looked very tasty. I sort of followed the recipe but used tagliatelle instead of fettuccine, fresh salmon rather than smoked salmon, and I didn’t include a chilli. I added the raw salmon to the sauce towards the end of the cooking process and let it simmer in there until cooked. Last, I sprinkled on a garnish of freshly chopped parsley. Voilà! Easy peasy and it was on the table in ten minutes. (Well, it would have been if we’d not been faffing about taking photos first. But that’s essential – for me a recipe is no use without a photo.)

So, here’s The Pasta Bible’s recipe:

Fettuccine al Salmone

You need a thick piece of smoked salmon for this recipe, not thin slices.

Ingredients

350g/12oz fresh pasta dough No.4

250ml/9 fl oz double cream

1 small fresh chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

some grated lemon zest

½ tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper

400g/14oz piece of smoked salmon, skinned

50g/1¾oz butter, cut into small pieces

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh lemon balm

Method

Using a knife or pasta machine, cut fettuccine from the pasta dough, or used dried fettuccine. Put the cream, chilli, nutmeg, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a large saucepan and boil gently to reduce the liquid by one-third (about 10 minutes). In the meantime, cut the salmon into 1cm/⅜in cubes. Cook the fettuccine in boiling salted water until al dente. Add the butter, piece by piece, to the cream sauce and stir in well. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cubed salmon. Drain the pasta and mix thoroughly with the sauce. Spoon on to pre-warmed plates and garnish with finely chopped lemon balm.